Lambrecht: Ups and Downs of 2011 Season

Cornell attackman Rob Pannell should be a shoo-in for the
Tewaaraton Trophy, writes Gary Lambrecht, as only Army's Jeremy
Boltus is even withing shouting distance of his 5.55 points per
game for the third-ranked Big Red.

Some thoughts as the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse regular
season homestretch swings into view:

West Point wonders

No. 18 Army is as puzzling as it is talented. The Black Knights
have a superb, one-two attack punch in feeder Jeremy Boltus and
finisher Garret Thul, one of the game's better igniters in
long-stick midfielder Tim Henderson and a senior force in goalie
Tom Palesky. They have beaten third-ranked Cornell. Yet, there they
were, falling behind struggling, unranked Navy by four goals late
in the first half last Saturday, in a game they needed to secure a
berth in the Patriot League tournament. It was the same kind of
listlessness Army (8-4, 3-2) showed in stretches during losses to
Bucknell and Colgate. Yes, the Black Knights recovered with a
vengeance by running overmatched Navy out of its own stadium with a
14-9 victory. Yet, how Army could look so disinterested in the
first half against its fiercest rival is a mystery to me. Not a
good sign.

Just rename them the Pannell Big Red

It sort of rhymes with the name of the institution, and that's
how ridiculously dominant junior attackman Rob Pannell has been for
Cornell. Through 11 games, Pannell (30 goals, 31 assists) has
averaged 5.55 points. Only Boltus (4.83) is less than a point
behind him among the elite scorers in Division I. Pannell is a
shoo-in for the Tewaaraton Trophy. The biggest questions are, can
Pannell carry the Big Red to an NCAA title, and how is he going to
top this incredible act in his final season in Ithaca?

The America Least

Kudos to UMBC for getting off the deck with such a young team to
win three straight and even its record at 5-5. Don
Zimmerman-coached teams typically improve significantly over the
course of the spring. But UMBC's rise also illustrates how down the
America East is in 2011, as first-place, 13th-ranked Stony Brook
(7-3) is the only school with fewer than five losses. The only
squad going to the NCAAs is the league tournament champion. That
will be the Seawolves, who have problems on defense not even
wonderful players such as senior midfielder Kevin Crowley and
senior faceoff man Adam Rand can hide. Remember, these guys lost,
9-8, to a Towson (2-9) team that can barely score.

Maybe this is the end

It's late April, and unranked Georgetown (5-6) is still looking
for a quality win. The Hoyas have been productive on offense,
horrendously undisciplined on defense, even with the great Barney
Ehrmann cleaning up ground balls and causing so many turnovers.
Year after year, this school gets top-flight recruits. They haven't
reached an NCAA tournament semifinal since their only trip in 1999,
and are on the verge of missing their fourth consecutive NCAA
tournament. Will the Georgetown administration demand something
better? If so, after 22 seasons running the Hoyas, head coach Dave
Urick, the face of Georgetown and one of the Mount Rushmore figures
of the sport, might be on his way out.

So young, so what

No. 2 Johns Hopkins starts eight players who are either freshmen
or sophomores, and its underclassmen-dominated defense is the best
the Blue Jays have had since 2005. No. 6 Duke starts six
underclassmen, including lightning-quick freshman Jordan Wolf at
attack. No. 9 North Carolina leans heavily on youth, starting with
freshman attackman Nicky Galasso, who is the game's most creative
feeder this side of Pannell. At Penn State under first-year coach
Jeff Tambroni, the Nittany Lions (6-5) have a tremendous rebuilding
block in freshman goalie Austin Kaut, who leads Division I in saves
per game (13.82) and save percentage (.633). To paraphrase Charles
Barkley, if you must decide between talent and experience, always
choose talent.

Don't sleep on them

Now that fourth-ranked Syracuse has fallen hard by losing its
first game, an 11-6 whipping at the hands of No. 3 Cornell, the
dumbest thing any potential opponent could do is to underestimate
the Orange. Attackman Tim Desko (knee) and defenseman John Lade
(ankle) need to get healthy, and Syracuse needs to find the
offensive step it displayed while blitzing Duke early in that 13-11
victory at the Big City Classic. With so many proud, talented
seniors, this team will be an extremely tough out in May. I think
top-ranked Notre Dame will get a preview of that on April 30 at the
Carrier Dome, where the Irish will become the last unbeaten school
to go down.

What a waste

Rutgers senior Christopher Mattes has been among the top faceoff
specialists in the nation all season, and he entered this week
leading Division I having won 67.9 percent of his draws. Rutgers
takes care of the ball extremely well (fifth-fewest turnovers) and
has held opponents to just 7.36 goals per game (seventh-best). But,
when you get killed on ground balls (ranked 51st), shoot a paltry
25.5 percent and make the fewest saves (6.64 per game) in the
country, you deserve to be 5-6 and going nowhere.